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A place wherein this Dwarven Cleric can share his love of maps, dice, miniatures, and all things involving gaming and general geekery--not to mention the occasional witty non-gaming observations--whilst escaping from the humdrum existence of his routine Terran existence.

Hail and Well Met, fellow traveler! May my Stronghold provide a place for enlightenment and amusement, and somewhere to keep your dice dry. Enter and rest awhile.

05 December 2012

Obligatory Apology Filler Post

My head seems to be spinning around non-stop lately.

I just realized how long it's been since I've actually posted anything here. And, yes, I know that I post one of these apology posts every so often; but heck, we all do, don't we?

Just to let you know what's been going on, at least, as much as I can at this point:

Work: Everyone here at the firm is soundly convinced that we will be unemployed before Christmas. I've been working and struggling to find some other options that will help me keep my kids fed and my wife's gas tank filled.

Finances: See above. There's a grundle of cool gaming stuff that I really want to shell out for--from dice made from rare, exotic woods to limited edition reprints of books I already have. Unfortunately, the "other options" I'm investigating don't really leave a lot of discretionary income. There's still a bit out there, but not much.

Health: I've been undergoing some really weird health issues. I don't think they're anything too serious, but the chronic nature of them is getting me a bit worried. However, thanks to over-regulation of the insurance industry (as well as a few pre-existing conditions), we had to cancel our family health insurance plan a couple years ago. Even with insurance, we weren't the type to run to the doctor for every sniffle and ache; now it's gotta be really serious to go to that waiting room. And frankly, no...I don't want my government to give me health care and no...health care is NOT going to get any easier around here any time soon. But that's a post for a different blog.

Family: I've got a teenager failing classes; she's a Junior in high school and we're not sure what the problem might be. She's smart--insanely so. I'm proud of her, but feel like we're pulling our hair out to try to help her succeed. I've got a Boy Scout now as well as a Cub Scout; merit badges and pinewood derby cars take a lot of time. I have an aged mother who I'm trying to help finalize the purchase of a headstone for my late father; the problems and follow-up come because the purchase was made from a monument company that now, apparently, is suffering huge financial issues itself, which tends to make me worry that we'll never actually SEE the stone. Add to that a Christmas letter or two that has to be drafted, as well as stuff for our Church....

Church: I won't even go into the time that my position with the Church requires.

Gaming: The group hasn't gotten together for over a month, now. The campaign is in the last chapter, but seems to have stagnated. There's been some odd things happen--weird dynamics and all--with the group that we're still trying to smooth over and put behind us. Nothing serious, but it took its toll. Even the PBEM I've been running with a friend has been on hold since August.

There's more that I could share, but I'm fairly certain I've lost most of my readers at this point to the [NEXT BLOG] button up on the top of the page. Suffice it to say that in my spare time I'm still noodling things out. Maps are still being doodled. NPC backgrounds are still being thunk up. And just this week I've realized that there are still a few things left undone from the 2011 OSR September Challenge--a few NPCs that need stats and I'm working on a template to put together a PDF of the entire month's creations. Again: I just need to find the time to put the stuff on paper. I'll be here and there, posting as time and creativity permits. I'm really hoping that life settles down a bit after the New Year.

Of course, I believe that I think--and say--the same thing EVERY December.

5 comments:

I am running into similar circumstances myself, but without the kids, or the church and actually my gaming group gets together weekly so actually me situation is nothing like yours. Weird. I thought it was. Maybe it was the insurance thing.

All kidding aside, I'm glad your still grinding away at the gaming stuff. If you ever are interested, and not to add anything more to your plate, you are more than welcome to try out our on-line game on Monday nights. I'll even buy all the chips.

I have seen stories here and there over the last little bit pointing out that smart kids are "slumming it", that is to say, they are intentionally doing bad at school so as to avoid being bullied by the kids who are not able to produce the same grades as them.

Or your daughter is like how I was during that time, trying to rely on natural intellect to puzzle through course work, without actually having any practice(homework) to back them up.

We have a mutual friend in Tim S (so long as I keep him on the payroll).

We went through lots of similar sorts of things with a high schoolers that is too private to share here. It is tough road as a parent but we are seeing a huge difference now that high school is over and college has started.